also jackknife, "pocket knife larger than a pen-knife," 1711, probably American English, apparently from some sense of jack (n.). Perhaps it originally was associated with sailors. Jackleg, jacklegged was a U.S. colloquial term of contempt from 1839. Scottish dialect had jockteleg (1670s) "large clasp-knife," of unknown origin, also jackylegs, jack-o-legs. As a kind of swimming dive from 1922; as a type of tractor-trailer accident, 1966; both from the notion of folding, as the knife does.

1776, "to stab," from jack-knife (n.). Intransitive meaning "to fold or bend" the body is said to date from the time of the American Civil War. The truck accident verbal sense is from 1949. Related: Jackknifed; jackknifing.